Fab explores the best positions used to record a bass drum and compares the different sounds of the most popular microphones for that purpose.
Chapters: -Overview of all positions with an AKG D112 -Best positions for Shure B52 -Best positions for Audix D6 -Best positions for Electrovoice RE20 -Best positions for Senheiser MD421 -Best positions for Beyer M88 -Best positions for Neumann 47FET -Guided comparisons between the different sounds, mics and positions
The attached zip file contains the audio examples of every single microphone in every single position, in solo and in context with the snare and the overheads. Please download the files and use it to form your taste, experiment and help you choose which microphone you will be using next time.
Parts of this site and some files are only accessible to pureMix Pro Members or available to purchase. Please see below our membership plans or add this video to your shopping cart.
00:00:07 Good morning children!
Today, we're going to talk about
recording bass drum
with one microphone,
with our resident Men In Black
look-alike: Keenan.
00:00:15 For the geek inside of you,
I know there's one,
we have a pair of AKG 451s
on the overheads,
going through an SSL preamp.
00:00:24 We have a venerable Shure SM57
on the snare drum,
going through a Neve 31102.
00:00:31 And the bass drums, all of them
are going through a UA 2108 preamp.
00:00:36 I'd like to point out that there's
no EQ or compression on anything
on this video.
00:00:41 We're gonna use one microphone
and look for the best possible position,
or maybe look what the different
positions do to the sound,
and then, we'll try different mics
to see the impact of the mic
versus the position,
and then we'll see what we like best.
00:00:57 So first, one microphone, an old,
but easy to find AKG D112,
inside the drum, because I see a lot
of people doing that,
so I'm very curious to know why!
Let's find out.
00:01:10 So I put the mic in,
I hook it up... like this,
making sure I'm not touching
the back heads
to not dampen the resonance.
00:01:19 I'm pointing it straight at the beater,
the middle of the drum, pretty close.
00:01:23 Et voilà! Alright!
Keenan if you will...
00:01:49 Ok! So that was great, very bottomy,
very present, very nice.
00:01:55 What would happen if I pull it out
a little bit
and make it kind
of a halfway kind of thing?
So I'm still in line,
I'm still looking at the beater.
00:02:05 I'm still inside the drum,
but I'm halway in the drum,
and I'm making sure that
the back of the mic
is facing the hole, so that
there's no resonance from the head
hitting the back of the mic too much.
00:02:18 What would that sound like?
I'm curious! Let's see...
00:02:40 Well that's a completely
different trip, obviously.
00:02:43 I'm not sure I like that!
Actually, I think it's kind of messy,
and resonant,
and has a lot of kind of like
almost comb filtering kind of vibe,
and I personally don't like it.
00:02:55 It might be good for somebody
who's looking for that sound.
00:02:57 I don't know
what I would do with that.
00:02:59 Let's try and put the microphone
outside the drum...
00:03:03 And see how that sounds.
00:03:06 So...
00:03:08 Ok, great! Let's go for that!
Now, that's really cool!
But that's a completely different tone.
I really like the punch,
as in the upper punch,
not the "Boom Boom Boom", but the...
00:03:38 "Poc Poc Poc", that's really cool!
Obviously there's less bottom,
but that could be very useful.
And also I like the presence,
it's kind of odd,
since it's further away,
but it still gives me kind of
a forward motion to it, which I like.
00:03:51 I'd like to try one more thing.
00:03:54 Often, there's no hole.
00:03:56 Certain drummers like to not have
a hole in the back head.
00:03:59 And that's an interesting sound.
00:04:01 I don't have a bass drum
with no hole right now,
but I can show you a little bit
how we would mike that
and what kind of a sound
it gives you.
00:04:09 Here we go.
00:04:27 Cool! I like that!
It's a different tone,
it's a very different tone, obviously,
the tone you'll get
if you have no hole in your head.
00:04:35 But I like it, even in this position.
00:04:37 Maybe it's an inspiration to check out
two microphones:
one here for that sound, and then
one here for the attack.
00:04:42 We could do that in a different video.
00:04:44 Right now, I'd like to go back
to the Pro Tools room
and compare these four positions,
and see what the impact is, isolated.
00:04:52 Then, we'll come back here
and try different microphones
at the same positions, just to get
a vibe for that difference.
00:04:58 Back in the Control Room,
we're gonna listen
to what we just did, soloing
the bass drum,
and focusing on
the very minor differences
between the four different positions.
00:05:07 Here's the D112, very close to the head,
the first position we did.
00:05:11 Pay attention to the attack,
the very bottom, the sub,
and then, the bleed of the snare.
Check it out.
00:05:24 So let's use this as a reference.
00:05:27 This is right in the middle
of the drum,
when we pulled
the microphone back a little bit.
00:05:40 Very different, right?
The bottom is gone, and there's
this kind of a hollow thing going on.
00:05:46 I think that's due to all the weird
resonances inside the bass drum that...
00:05:52 since the mic
is far away from the head,
it's not so focused on the beater
anymore, it's actually picking up
a lot of the turbulence
inside the drum,
and it's making this hollowy
kind of sound.
00:06:01 It's got some bottom,
it's got some attack,
but it feels processed.
If I play this one again,
the very first one,
check it out, it sounds like this.
00:06:11 And this is the mid one.
00:06:16 It's scooped in the middle, right?
All that punch is gone.
00:06:19 So that probably is not my first choice
for this beat,
or for this bass drum,
or for this drummer.
00:06:24 Let's listen to the one where
the microphone was right outside
the cutout hole.
It sounds like this.
00:06:37 That's really cool!
There's a certain forward motion to it,
like a presence,
and a transient that's a lot more
prominent
than the one inside the drum,
near the head,
which makes no sense! The one near
the head should have more of that.
00:06:50 But check it out!
This is the outside one.
00:06:59 And this is the inside one.
00:07:07 Again, outside...
00:07:15 So, we have a certain punch
that's not due to the attack,
but that's due to more material
in the 200 area, or 300Hz area.
00:07:24 So you get less of the 60
and 30 thing, "Boom Boom Boom",
but you get more of that...
cardboard sound,
that really punchy sound.
00:07:32 That would be great for a more
rock'n'roll sound for example,
Maybe the first one would be better
for an R'n'B kind of sound.
00:07:37 We should check out the fourth one,
which was the one where it was
outside the drum,
but not in front of the hole,
just like if we had two flat heads
with no hole. It sounds like this.
00:07:46 Listen to the bottom, try and get
a feeling for the density of it.
00:07:51 Just how much room does it take?
How solid does it feel? Check it out.
00:08:01 That's great. It's got the most
density, and the most energy
down there in the bottom,
and in one very connected,
very solid amount of frequencies...
But no attack!
So is it gonna work for you?
Maybe, maybe not, it depends
on the music you're doing,
it depends on the sound of your room
and your overheads,
because you could get some attack
back from the overheads.
00:08:20 It's tricky, right?
But this is the rule of thumb.
00:08:23 Now I'm gonna play all four examples,
and I'm gonna try and draw
conclusions on that.
00:08:29 Maybe you wanna try and close your eyes
when you listen to that,
because that would help you
focus more on the sound,
and less on looking at the timeline
moving across.
00:08:38 So you can close your eyes,
no tricks will happen,
I'm gonna play the stuff, and tell you
what I'm playing.
00:08:44 Ok? Here we go! So first one...
Your eyes are not closed!
First one!
D112, close to the head,
inside the drum,
lots of attack, nice beater,
fun 60Hz-ish...
It sounds like this.
00:09:04 Second one...
00:09:06 Middle of the drum, back from the head,
still inside the drum,
less attack, little fuzzy to me.
00:09:19 Third one.
00:09:20 Outside the head, in front of the hole.
00:09:23 Lots of "Poc"!, lots of cardboard,
very punchy I'd say.
00:09:34 Fourth one.
00:09:36 Lots of "Boom"!, lots of density
in the bottom, almost no attack,
funky sounding snare in the bleed.
00:09:49 Alright! Open your eyes.
Right!
Now... Decisions. Well...
Those are the rules of thumb.
00:09:56 You know that if you're close to
the head, you're gonna get more beater,
and probably a little more 60,
at least with the D112.
00:10:01 If you go in the middle, you gotta be
really good at what you do,
or know what you're doing, otherwise
you may get a lot of turbulence there.
00:10:08 Right outside the head, you get that
more rock'n'roll sound with more 200-300
and less bottom.
00:10:13 And then, outside the head,
but not in front of the hole,
you get an enormous amount of "Boom",
and almost no attack.
00:10:20 Make your selection at any time!
Now, we're gonna go back
into the Live Room,
and listen to these positions,
at least the ones we like,
with different microphones,
so we can weigh the difference between
moving the same mic,
or switching the mic...
00:10:33 or switching the mic,
and moving the mic.
00:10:36 Let's try that!
Let's start with a Beta 52.
It's the first drum mic I ever bought.
00:10:42 Let's put it in here.
00:10:44 About the same position,
so we're gonna do inside/outside,
and then right here...
00:10:51 for most mics, but check it out.
00:10:53 I'm putting the Beta 52 about where
the D112 was, which sounded really good.
00:10:59 Pay attention to the differences.
Is it brighter or darker?
I think it's a little brighter myself,
you'll have to make your own opinion.
00:11:05 Also listen to the bleed of the snare
in the bass drum mic.
00:11:07 Because that will change the sound
of the snare,
so how the other instruments sound
in that mic
also influences your choice
of microphone, of course.
00:11:15 And then, listen to the bottom,
to the "Boom".
00:11:17 Is it more extended? Is it as flat?
Does it have little waves,
some frequencies sticking out?
Is it as even?
That's pretty much what you have
to listen for.
00:11:26 So first position for the Beta 52.
Here we go!
Cool!
It sounds a little processed to me,
plus I don't like the bleed
of the snare.
00:11:53 But that's my taste!
This position here sounds
a little fatter,
it's just basically a slightly fatter
version of the same thing.
00:12:02 You'll be able to listen to it
by download.
00:12:04 I think we should listen to this,
as an interesting exercise.
00:12:08 Check it out. Remember how the D112
sounded really...
00:12:11 kind of interesting and fat,
but with no attack?
Listen to this. Here we go.
00:12:34 So that's a mess, right?
That's basically unuseable,
this would be a complete EQ nightmare.
00:12:40 It's interesting to think about that
the same position, the same drum,
the same drummer,
two different microphones...
00:12:47 one works, one doesn't.
00:12:49 So if you only own one microphone,
you have to be very careful
as to what you do with it,
and maybe it's gonna keep you
into one position that works.
00:12:58 So to find that out,
we're gonna try yet another one.
00:13:01 Let's try a D6, it's made by Audix,
it's made especially for this,
just like the Beta 52 was made by Shure
especially for this.
00:13:08 This is a more recent mic.
00:13:11 That's my second special drum mic
I ever bought!
So let's see what happens if I put it
in the same spot there.
00:13:20 Like this.
00:13:24 Maestro?
Now, that sounds really processed,
and scooped, and lots of highs
and bottoms, and not a lot of middle.
00:13:48 It's one sound I don't know that
I could really model it,
to do what I want it to do later.
00:13:53 So if I don't have a really clear idea
of where I wanna go,
I would probably steer clear
of doing this.
00:13:59 Putting it here...
00:14:03 yields something that just goes
"Poc, Poc, Poc, Poc",
which I don't like. You can listen
to it, download the session.
00:14:09 But I want you to hear this.
00:14:12 I think this is pretty cool.
Listen to the boom
and the bottom on this one.
Check it out.
00:14:34 That's pretty amazing, right?
It's so enormous, and "Boom",
and round,
and just buoyant and fun.
00:14:42 So that's great.
00:14:44 It probably means that it would
work great
on a double head bass drum
with no hole.
00:14:48 Also, it probably sounds great on toms.
00:14:51 In this particular case,
with this particular drum,
and this particular drummer,
if that's not the sound I'm looking for,
if I'm looking for a punchy sound,
I probably would have to switch the mic,
because I'm not getting
what I want from this mic.
00:15:03 The idea that I'm gonna fix it
in the mix
is probably not a good idea either.
00:15:07 So, let's switch the mic!
This is an Electro-Voice RE-20,
a very good microphone for vocals,
like voice-overs, they use them
in radios a lot.
00:15:19 And it doesn't sound bad
on bass drum. Check it out.
00:15:22 Listen to the punch,
listen to the extension of it.
00:15:27 But most importantly, the click...
the attack.
00:15:30 Alright? Here we go!
Nice. To me, it reminds me of what
the D112 sounded outside the bass drum.
00:15:55 More upper range, which is
for a bass drum, low-mids, attack,
and less bottom, but still very useable,
it's kind of cool.
00:16:05 That would be kind of a rock'n'roll
kind of thing.
00:16:07 And then, here... I don't like it.
But you can hear it on the download.
00:16:13 And here...
00:16:17 Hold on, you know what? Let me
rebalance the weight here. Here we go.
00:16:21 Like this. Let's try this!
Remember how the D6 sounded,
really boomy and extended,
and the D112 was kind of cool,
and earthy?
Check this one out.
00:16:52 That's cool!
It's got a lot of attack.
00:16:54 Since we don't have a hole,
this would be very useful
for a double head bass drum
when you need the punch,
but don't have the hole.
Very practical.
00:17:04 Let's try something else!
This one's gonna be different.
It's a Beyer M88.
00:17:09 I'm gonna put it in the same position,
about 2 inches from the skin,
right in here,
aiming at the beater.
00:17:16 Voilà! Now...
00:17:20 Think of it in different terms
for this one.
00:17:22 What we heard so far
is a capture device,
and it enhances the sound
in certain ways.
00:17:28 I think this one is more
of a documentary style.
00:17:31 It just shows you what it is.
Check it out!
It's pretty wild how different it is.
Now check it out outside.
00:17:53 If your record is
a very open folk record,
that is really a snapshot of a moment,
this is gonna work great.
00:18:03 If you wanna make it sound
like a hip-hop drum,
with lots and lots of bottom,
and lots of beater,
and kind of like a supernatural sound,
this is not a good starting point.
00:18:11 So let's listen to this position.
00:18:13 Check it out.
00:18:31 And just for good measure,
I think this is worth
listening to all three positions.
00:18:39 Here we go!
Alright, so you get the reality,
and the "Boom",
but less "Poc" than the RE-20.
00:19:02 If I only have this mic,
for this kind of groove,
I would probably use this position.
00:19:07 That's the one that was the closest
of the compromise.
00:19:10 At least that's the way it feels right
now, we'll see when we get to the mix.
00:19:13 Let's try another mic.
00:19:15 This is a Sennheiser 421,
which was not designed for this.
00:19:19 I'm not quite sure
what they designed it for.
00:19:21 I see it on toms a lot,
but I think...
00:19:26 this is interesting.
00:19:27 If you've ever had
a rock'n'roll session
on your Pro Tools rig, or Logic rig,
or whatever you use,
and opened it, you've heard this sound
before, because this is a classic.
00:19:36 Check it out.
00:19:53 Alright. I like how it brings up
the beater,
and I like the focus of it,
and I like the attack of it.
00:19:59 Obviously, the bottom is
not quite fluffy enough
if you're using just one mic, unless
you're doing some really bright music.
00:20:05 This position here
heals very little to me,
and this position here heals
even less to me,
but we're still gonna record them
for you to listen to.
00:20:15 Until then, we're gonna try
another mic.
00:20:19 Last but not least,
this is a 47 FET.
00:20:22 It's a staple, it's the microphone
you'll see on the bass drum
if you go to a big studio,
on anybody who's recording drums.
00:20:27 Let's find out why.
I'm gonna start inside.
00:20:30 As a side note,
this is a condenser microphone.
00:20:34 Every other microphone we tried
was a dynamic microphone.
00:20:40 Here we go!
Well that's amazing!
It kind of reminds me of the D112
from the very, very first step,
but a little fatter maybe.
Is it 300 or 400 dollars fatter?
Make your decision!
Let's try it outside.
00:21:14 Because that's where
most people put it, right?
"Put something inside,
and put a 47 FET outside, ok?"
"I can do that..."
Let's try this.
00:21:23 Here we go!
Ok, so that happened.
00:21:43 It sounds good, but I'm not sure
I like it as much as, say the D112,
the way the D112 sounded right here.
00:21:49 It's useable though... Not my favorite.
Let's try...
00:21:54 this!
Your majesty?
I think that's great!
It's a very natural sound, very open,
it still has some attack.
00:22:19 I think it's a very special sound.
00:22:21 I would work hard and try and fit this
into my mix.
00:22:24 Now I think we've tried
enough microphones.
00:22:27 We should go back to the studio
and compare them,
and draw conclusions.
Thank you maestro!
Back in the Control Room, let's get
ready for a roller-coaster.
00:22:37 Do you like that?
I hate roller-coasters!
I like this one though. Check it out!
The point here is I'm gonna play
every single microphone,
in the same position:
close to the head, close to the beater,
the first position,
for all 7 microphones in a row,
so you get an idea of how insane
it can get
to choose a microphone just before
a session, when you have so many.
00:22:58 Then, we can discuss remedies and
reasons not to freak out before a session.
00:23:03 But first, let's just take in
just how wide the span is
from microphone to microphone.
00:23:10 So I will tell you the name
of the mic, and play it,
one after the other,
so you can close your eyes!
Here we go! First...
00:23:18 D112.
00:23:28 Beta 52.
00:23:36 D6.
00:23:46 RE-20.
00:23:55 M88.
00:24:03 421.
00:24:12 47 FET.
00:24:21 So that happened. Scary, no?
It's scary, because you will never,
ever have the time to do that
on a regular session.
The drummer will kill you,
or his girlfriend will kill you,
or the producer will kill you,
someone will kill you before you get
to the 7th microphone.
00:24:34 So what do you do when you only
have one microphone for the bass drum?
Are you doomed? No!
First, you know that if you move
the mic around,
you can optimize whatever mic you have
to get closer to the tone you need.
00:24:46 That's nice. Second, maybe you have
another microphone
that's not designed for bass drum,
like for example an M88,
or whatever you have that's not
a bass drum microphone,
that you could try on the bass drum
at different positions,
and actually get a good tone.
00:24:58 Third, there's always the option
to rent the microphone for a day.
00:25:01 It's always better, no matter what,
to get the proper microphone
for the proper instrument,
than try and fix in the mix
the wrong mic for the instrument.
00:25:12 It's a guarantee.
00:25:14 So, as a summary, I'd like to urge you
to download the samples
we've made available to you,
that have every single take
of every single microphone,
in every single position.
00:25:23 It also has the snare and the overheads,
so you can listen in solo,
and in context, because
it's a world of difference.
00:25:29 And then, use that to form your taste.
Pick your favorite,
your 2 favorites, your 3 favorites,
and then expand that,
and then imagine how you would use them
on your next session.
00:25:39 Because ultimately, it's about
your vision, again,
at the risk of repeating myself,
it's about your vision
driving the technicalities of it,
not the other way around.
00:25:48 It's a lot easier to have vision
if you have a database of sounds
in your head to choose from.
00:25:55 Et voilà!
Once logged in, you will be able to read all the transcripts jump around in the video.
Fab Dupont is a Grammy winning NYC based record producer, mixing/mastering engineer and co-founder of pureMix.net.
Fab has been playing, writing, producing and mixing music both live and in studios all over the world. He's worked in cities like Paris, Boston, Brussels, Stockholm, London and New York just to name a few.
He has his own studio called FLUX Studios in the East Village of New York City.
Fab has been nominated for Grammys 6 times, including two Latin Grammys and has received many other accolades around the world, including Victoires de la Musique, South African Music awards, Pan African Music Awards and US independent music awards.
Parts of this site and some files are only accessible to pureMix Pro Members or available to purchase. Please see below our membership plans or add this video to your shopping cart.
Great video. Just for a dissenting opinion, I love the D6! D6 combined with another mic is great.
johnfueston
2014 Aug 25
Great Video- very helpful to start to develop a sense of difference in bass drum sounds.
AdRi__Forn
2014 Jun 24
Thanks for this video!
Joseph Piccione
2013 Apr 28
"Fab"ulous to say the least. Thanks for the great video lesson.
Joseph Piccione
angel72bg
2012 May 29
Thank You Fab for that;
"viewing time limit for videos has been extended to 100 years".
Your tutorials are the best in the business.
And your sense of humour is great.
A love that.
Keep going.
Now I am a better engineer.
----
Is it possible to make a tutorial for mastering.(the black art)
I saw so many video,but they just touch the surface.
Thank You in advance.
Best Regadrds
PoPe
2012 Jan 20
This the hell of a library! I ll be much more careful when choosing kick drum mics in the future. (certainly not the D6 lol!)
twalstrom
2011 Apr 14
Fantastic demonstration and very informative. This video gave me a whole new perspective on selecting the right mic for a kick drum. Downloading the sound files for reference will save you hours of guess work and help you acheive that sound you are looking for. Great Job !!! Priceless!
TJ Walstrom
Owner/Engineer @ Megastation Studio
